It’s not just that I want everything you have, it’s that I want you to not have it.”
If there has ever been a line in a movie that perfectly encapsulates the theme of the film, this line from Pain & Gain is it. Spoken through gritted teeth by Daniel Lugo to Victor Kershaw, it sums up the perversion of the American Dream that has bubbled to the surface of our culture in recent decades. The Dream is no longer about doing well financially and having the things you want, but about grabbing every dollar you can at the expense of others.
At least that’s what Michael Bay, the director of Pain & Gain and the Transformers movies, would have you believe. Given the actions of Lugo and his brothers in crime, I bought what Bay was selling.
Back to Lugo and Kershaw. Based on a true story reported by the Miami Herald, Pain & Gain follows three body builders in Florida who get caught up in a kidnapping and extortion scheme that goes very, very wrong. As the movie opens, Lugo, played by Mark Wahlberg, is spending his days whipping the rich and contemptible into shape while dreaming of cutting himself a huge slice of American pie. He’s obsessed with becoming wealthy, only his job as a fitness trainer all but guarantees himself a life of scarcity and servitude.
Then Kershaw becomes his client. Played by Tony Shalhoub of Monk fame, Kershaw is a monumental jerk. Another word would describe him better, but this is a family newspaper. During his workouts with Lugo, he brags about his wealth, which sets the questionable machinery in Lugo’s head in motion. His idea: Kershaw, convince him to pay the ransom, and let him go. “No one will get hurt,” Lugo promises Paul Doyle, an ex-con played by Dwayne Johnson he ropes into helping. He also convinces his buddy and co-worker at the gym, Adrian Doorbal, to help.
I mentioned Pain & Gain is based on a true story. While Lugo and Doorbal are based on real men – men who are currently on death row as a result of what happened when their plan went awry - sources about Doyle differ, though the most credible information I could dig up is that Johnson’s character is based on several people.
Lugo’s plan might have seemed simple, but he’s no master of crime. Rather, he has a tendency to plow forward without regard for important details. As a result of the undeniable stupidity of the movie version of Lugo, things start to unravel, at first hilariously. As things go from bad to worse, though, Pain & Gain stops being funny and you have to marvel at the thought of these things actually happening. Late in the movie, as Doyle is trying to grill the fingerprints off four hands outside of their hideout, the words, “This is a still a true story,” pop up on the screen.
The early scenes are the best, when Bay is setting up the caper. This portion of the movie is tight, funny, and captivating to watch. The dialog is sharp, Bay proves he can make a visually engaging movie without spending a billion dollars on animated robots, and the actors bring their characters to life. Once their plan starts to unravel, so does the movie. This might have been by design, but scenes felt more improvised than planned out, and more manic than focused. I was done watching the movie long before it was over.
Despite my dislike of the final third of Pain & Gain, the movie is worth seeing. Wahlberg and Johnson are great in their roles, the dumb criminal humor is off the charts (the scene in which they try but fail to kill Kershaw is a classic), and I enjoyed seeing Bay take a decent stab at cultural commentary. I just wish the last act was as good as the first two.
Rated R for bloody violence, crude sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use. Two-and-a-half stars out of four.